Margie Hauser is a true legend in the American southern cooking world, and for good reason. She has left her mark on Mississippi, Louisiana, New York City and the Caribbean.

Margie Hauser is a true legend in the American southern cooking world, and for good reason. She has left her mark on Mississippi, Louisiana, New York City and the Caribbean. Margie’s culinary adventures date to 1934 when she was twelve years old living with her parents on their cotton farm near Tupelo in North Mississippi while they struggled through The Great Depression of 1929-1939.

Margie’s father, Roy Hauser, was a carpenter and building contractor, who was self-educated in carpentry and became a skilled artisan. A high school dropout, he built their house from scratch in 1929. Margie describes the house as being made of hand-hewn pine logs with layers of stove pipe that were heated with wood for air conditioning and the resulting ashes used for fertilizer around the perennials to keep them healthy through droughts and insects.

Margie Hauser credits her mother, Ida Mae Hauser, as teaching her everything she knew about cooking before finding her calling as a chef. Margie’s mother was a homemaker, gardener and started her own business of making jams, jellies and homemade breads. Margie learned how to make preserves and breads from her mother. Margie’s first job after graduating from high school was at the local Tupelo Country Club in August 1949 as a salad girl. In 1951 she moved back home to help out with the family after her parents were killed in a car accident; Margie became guardian of her two younger brothers, Billy and Steve Hauser.

Margie met her future husband, Joe Ray Hauser, when she was working at the Tupelo Country Club for twenty-five dollars a week in 1951. She married Joe in December 1954. They had three boys, Roy, Randy and Barry Hauser; however, only the youngest son, Barry survived and their daughter Sheila was stillborn in 1966.